New age?
by Keeper-of-Wings
Summary: Voldemort has been defeated, Harrys last year has started, the Malfoy family is missing and strange things start happening - again. shonen-ai
1. Hey there

Last year Voldemort had finally been defeated and Harry Potter had become even more famous then ever. Many were so happy, that they overlooked the fact that many of the Dark One's followers escaped.

One of those was the Death Eater Lucius Malfoy. He disappeared right after the final showdown and with him his family and the estate where he lived in.

The Dementors were once again under the control of the Ministerium and still searching for those who escaped. Also Fudge had been forced to retread.

Now the last year for Harry and his friends was about to start at Hogwarts and all of them were looking forward to it.

You could notice the high spirits of everyone already on the train and Harry was the center of attention until Hermione as well as Ron told them to give the boy some air for himself.

Only when the sorting ceremony was finished, you could clearly see a difference. Not many had been sorted to Slytherin and it was also obvious that Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson where missing. Not that they were missed by THAT many.

As an addition the green and silver house got an exchange student from china, who was introduced by Dumbledore as Shen Drake Liang.

The very strange thing with this student was, that he looked a lot like Harry. He could actually pass for the boy, with the difference that Shen had brown eyes, was a bit taller and didn't wear glasses.

And of course, he hadn't had that scar.

"You never told us that you had a twin.", some joked to Harry, who only smiled back a weak smile. How he would have loved to have one.

During the festival Hermione leaned over to Harry. "Look at Liang.", she whispered. "The ghosts keep quite a distance to him... Strange, don't you think?"

After a few minutes of watching him, he too noticed, that none of the ghosts, not even the Bloody Baron or Peeves went to close to the new one.

Suddenly the exchange student snapped his head in his direction and looked directly into his eyes. For a moment he even thought that the boys eyes were golden.

"Must be the candle light reflecting in his eyes.", he thought and turned his attention back to the food.

Their happiness was cut short however when they saw the first subject on the next morning. "Starting a day with Snape is definitely a bad omen.", Ron groaned. "Who are you? Trelawny?", Harry wondered, raising an eyebrow.

The golden Trio rolled their eyes at the mention of the Divination teacher. "We are even more lucky... We have Potions with the Slytherins... AGAIN!", Hermione muttered.

"Well, at last those four aren't there to mess with our potions...", the boy-who-lived-and-defeated-Voldemort sighed.

Just a bit later they found themselves down into the dungeons in the potion classroom. As usual Snape strolled into the classroom just in time as the lesson officially started. "I see we have a new face with us... Mr. Leng-", the potions master started but was cut off.

"Liang.", the boy corrected, looking Snape in the eye.

"Mr. Liang, then... What can you tell me about the Devil's Snare?", he asked coldly.

"Devil's Snare is composed of a mass of soft, springy tendrils and vines that possess some sense of touch. Devil's Snare uses its creepers and tendrils to ensnare anyone who touches it, binding their arms and legs and eventually choking them. The harder a person struggles against Devil's Snare, the more faster and more tightly it binds them; if they relax, it will not kill them as quickly.  
Devil's Snare prefers a dark, damp environment and shrinks away from fire, so a well-placed flame spell such as Bluebell Flames will drive it away from its victims... It's similar in appearance to the Flitterbloom, which is non-violent...", the boy replied looking bored.

Snape actually looked surprised before taking on his former look. "Very good. 10 points for Slytherin. What do you know about the fluxweed?"

"Fluxweed is an ingredient in Polyjuice potion, but has to be picked at the full moon to be effective therein.", Shen answered.

"Another 5 points to Slytherin.", Snape responded, a satisfied smirk in place. "It seems you aren't a hopeless one as I first thought."

"You shouldn't judge others at their appearance only, if you don't want the same done to you.", the boy said coldly. Everyone held their breath, but Snape only eyed him weirdly, before finally starting the lesson.

It seemed that potions wasn't the only thing the new Slytherin was good at, as they found out. Even thought it was his first day in Hogwarts, by the end of it everyone knew him.

The golden trio also found out that he didn't told a lot about himself, thought if you asked for his assistance on a subject he would be very helpful.

Hermione found him reading the backs of the books in the library. "Are you searching for a certain book?", she asked. The boy turned towards her. "No, thank you. I'm just looking for a book I haven't read yet and catches my interest."

They quickly found themselves be talking about quite many books both of them have read. When Harry and Ron came looking for the girl, they just entered in time to see Liang chuckling. "You would feel at home in China then. The library is almost trice the size of this one... But not as comfortable and nice as this one.", he admitted.

"Is that so?", Hermione smiled back. "You know, I have been meaning to ask you this for quite some time... How comes you are so good at all your subjects? Did you only learn through reading? Or is it something else?"

The exchange student seemed a bit embarrassed. "You don't have to answer.", Hermione quickly said once she noticed his discomfort. "Not, it's alright... I knew that sooner or later people would wonder... Well, in China the school system is a bit different and well... Actually I have already finished school over there, but I wanted to learn more... The headmaster knew this and offered me to come here as an exchange student and I agreed."

"Wow! That's quite amazing...", the girl gapped. Just then she noticed the two boys standing behind Liang. "Harry, Ron! Did you just came? I didn't notice you!"

The Slytherin turned and bowed slightly. All three stared confused at him.

"Right... I forgot that you don't greet like this here in England....", the boy explained. "So you bow in China as a greeting?", Ron wondered.

"Yes, it's a show of respect. A slight bow to people on the same or lower level then you, a deeper bow to... for example teachers and a really deep bow to such people as headmaster or people from the Ministerium and so on... I guess you get the idea..."

They sat down on a table to continue their chat. "Are you good at Quidditch as well?", Harry wondered. His almost twin looked at him with a strange expression. "Quidditch?", he repeated. "Oh, you mean that strange game where you ride a broom, don't you?"

The three others exchanged looks. How could a wizard not know about Quidditch. "It's not very popular in china, at last not at the school I went to... We had a very similar game thought... It's hard to explain in english..."

About an half hour later Liang excused himself. "I still have a few things to do, thought I look forward to continue talking to you soon again...", he said to them with a smile and left.

"How could he become a Slytherin?", Hermione wondered.

Ron shrugged and Harry didn't said anything, but looked towards the door where Liang had left. "Harry?", Hermione asked.

"Huh? What did you say?", he asked turning his attention to her. "I wondered how he could have become a Slytherin...", she repeated looking a bit concerned.

"... Did you notice that he dogged all questions regarding himself directly?", the young wizard asked finally. His best friends looked at him for a few moments replaying the chat within their minds. "You are right!", Hermione said surprised.

They decided not to let the boy that lightly off the next time.

It seemed however, that they shouldn't get a chance to talk to him that soon again. Since they were in their last years the teachers seemed quite hard on them, giving them so much extra-homework that many were on the brink of crying.

Harry was actually grateful that he chose not to do Quidditch this year, whilst Ron was close to ripping his hair out in frustration.

A week before the first Quidditch match Liang didn't turned up for breakfast. His room mates said, that the boy hadn't been in his bed when they had risen that day. Since it was no unusual occurrence for a student to get lost they let the day pass by, but when there was still no sign of him at lunch, Snape went to the room where the boy had lived in and questioned his room mates if they noticed anything missing, without luck.

Except for the boy himself, his usual clothes and his wand nothing seemed to be amiss.


	2. Back

Disclaimer: I don't own HP, but I own Shen so hands off!

Chapter 2 - Back

Even though the school was searched through more than once, the boy couldn't be found. Harry even searched for him on his map and went once again in the chamber of Secrets just to make sure the boy hadn't gone down there.

The boy still didn't showed up.

"Shouldn't we inform his family about this?", Harry heard Snape asking the headmaster, only to see this one shaking his head sadly. "The boy has no living relatives...", he explained.

"But shouldn't he have a guardian then?", Snape inquired. Again Dumbledore shook his head. "His mother died last year and they found him able to take care of himself... And he is indeed able to defend himself if he has to..."

On the third day after his disappearance a heavy thunderstorm came over Hogwarts. Everyone was happy to be able to be inside. Even Hagrid preferred to stay within the castle. When he had gotten here, he had luckily brought a second outfit with him, because his other was quite wet, leaving a trail behind, which of course made Flinch curse under his breath.

During this storm the huge doors to the main hall were thrown open during dinner. It was the missing boy. He was completely wet, looked tired and was carrying a quite big and wet bundle with him. "Madame Pomfrey... I need your help...", he managed to say.

When students rose to help him with is burden he stumbled backwards. "No.", he simply said and quickly took his leave with the nurse, Snape, McGonagall and the headmaster.

The nurse and the boy weren't seen until two days later, when both of them took part on breakfast for the first time since Liang had returned.

It was obvious to everyone that the boy didn't wanted to be there and snarled at anyone who dared to bother him. Once breakfast was over, he also left the hall like a thunderbolt, glaring at Dumbledore as if daring him to say something.

He wasn't seen on that day in any of the subjects either. It was Hermione who guessed that he might be in the infamy. "Why do you think so?", Harry wanted to know.

"Well, I thought about that thing he carried with him and it would be about the size of a human around our age, you know? Also I think he didn't wanted Madame Pomfrey to take a look at him, but on whoever he brought with him... And also I think that Professor Dumbledore doesn't quite approve of his doings lately... Did you see the glare Liang sent him just before he left?"

"... Should we go and check on him? We could check if you are right at the same time.", the boy-who-lived suggested. "I'm in.", Ron shrugged.   
"Alright, then let's go before lunch.", Hermione said and the boys groaned. They had completely forgotten that they had to sit through their classes first.

The morning lessons seemed to be trice the length they usually were. Professor McGonagall even had to tell them to sit still, because they constantly squirmed in their seats.

Finally the last class was over and they hurried over to the hospital wing. "Madame Pomfrey.", they greeted her and she eyed them one for one. "None of you seem to need medical attention... Why are you here?", she replied.

"We wanted to make sure Liang is alright. He is here, isn't he?", Hermione said. The nurse hesitated. "Yes, he is here, but... I don't think he wants to talk to anyone..."

"Can we at last try?", Harry asked.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt... Come in.", she replied and let them in. "I'm getting him.", she told them and went over to a bed were the curtains were drawn around.

"Shen, Harry, Ron and Hermione are here for you.", the trio heard her say. A muffed sound - similar to a sob - came from behind the curtain followed by an annoyed "I don't care. Sent them away! I'm not leaving his side again! Dumbledore can say whatever he wants! I trust him!"

"Calm down, Shen. They are only concerned about your health."

"Well, they shouldn't! Up to now they never cared about the well-being of a Slytherin anyway!", the boy hissed.

Shocked the golden trio exchanged looks. This was definitely not the boy they had gotten known to. What had happened to make such a turn of personality?

A few words later Madame Pomfrey came over to them sadly shaking her head. "I'm really sorry...", she said and gently directed them towards the exit. Before they left Harry turned around again. "Madame Pomfrey, who is it that Liang brought with him?" The nurse shook her head at him. "I'd like to tell you, but I don't think either of them would approve..."

"Tonight I'll come back again.", Harry told them on the way to the great hall. "This time I'll use the invisible cloak... You coming with me?"

"I'd love to, but I don't think I'll be up to anything after Quidditch practice...", Ron apologized. "And I have three tests tomorrow... I think I'll study till late in the night.", Hermione explained, obviously sorry.

This was how it came that the boy-who-lived silently sneaked through the night towards the hospital wing, invisible thanks to his father's cloak.

He made it there without troubles not even seeing one single person on the whole way. This actually made him feel a bit uneasy for it had never had happened before. Of course it also could be that he was very lucky all of sudden, but not very likely.   
Suppressing a sigh that was threatening to escape his throat he carefully pushed the door to the infamy open.

The curtain around the bed was still drawn and he could hear two people breathing calmly and relaxed. Carefully he let the door slide shut again, before he tiptoed towards the hidden bed.

Just when he was about to draw the curtain he noticed something was different. Before he had a chance to think what exactly was different, the curtain opened before him and Shen's golden eyes were looking into his.

"What do you want?", the boy spoke calmly, but there was a dangerous undertone within his voice. "I-I wanted to... to see if you are alright...", Harry replied surprised and a bit frightened.

When the Slytherin didn't reply he added. "And I guess I also was kind of curious whom you brought with you..."

The other boy suddenly looked tired and rubbed is eyes. "Look, I really appreciate your concern about me, thought it might not have sounded like it before... I guess, I was under some kind of stress and also very concerned for Dr- ... my guest... I won't tell you who it is yet and it will be revealed to everyone soon enough... All I ask from you and everyone else to give him some more peace... He needs to recover..."   
Harry nodded. "Alright, I guess I'll see you sometime in the great hall soon?"   
The other boy nodded, his hair falling into his face again. "Now get lost before anyone finds you here..."

Only when he entered the common room a thought that crossed his mind made him frown. How had Shen been able to see him?

On the next day Harry told his two friends about his nightly encounter. They too were surprised when he notified them, that Shen had been able to see him even thought he had been under his invisible cloak.


	3. Unexpected guest

Just on the day before the first Quidditch match Shen returned. Thought not alone. Everyone was having dinner, when Madame Pomfrey entered the hall. She quickley walked up to Dumbledore whispering something to him.

While this occured Shen entered the room as well, together with a smaller figure that hid behind him.

Harry was the first to notice his almost-twin and quickley signalled his friends to look as well. Just when Shen was about changing his direction towards the Slytherin table, Dumbledore rose and asked for the attention of everyone.

„I'm pleased to be able to announce the return of Shen Drake Liang from Slytherin.", he said, quickley followed by a thounderrous applouse, which only made said boy rise an eyebrow. „I'd also like to welcome our other guest. Draconius Black-Malfoy."

Now the hall was completely quite. Surely they had missunderstood their headmaster. „Before either of you jumps on conclusions...", Shen spoke into that silence, which made him the center of attention. „I'd like to say that Draconius has never been in Hogwarts before... And I'd also like to add that Draconius Black-Malfoy and Draco Malfoy are NOT the same person... Anyone who has a problem with him being here or other complains may contact me..."

A strange glimmer was in his eyes when he said the last sentence. „Also take note that I am the boys guardian... Any treats or negative behavior towards him won't be tollerated!"

He stood for a few more minutes in the silence before he looked behind him. „Oi! Are you alright? I know you don't like to meet so many strangers at once, but you will have to get used to it and the earlier, the better."

Nothing happened for a moment then carefully a head peeked out from behind the Slytherin. The similarity to Draco Malfoy was defenitely there. Draconius was a boy around the age of 12, had a long blond – almost white – ponytail down to the waist and was about a head shorter then Shen himself. His grey eyes displayed nervousness, curiosity and innocence as well as a bit of distrust.

And he was obviously shy as hell too, for he blushed when he noticed so many eyes on him and hid himself again.

The chinese boy only rolled his eyes, grabbed the boy from behind and put him in front him, while hugging him from behind. „Everyone, this is Draconius. Be nice to him!"

‚If you know what's good for you' hang unspoken in the air.

The new Slytherin didn't seem to like this much and quickly turned around to hide his face into Shens robe. A Malfoy-smirk appeared on the dark haired one's face before he gently took the boys hand and lead him over to their table.

There he simply sat down with the boy next to him and started eating.

After a few moments Dumbledore cleared his troath. „That was all. Please enjoy your dinner..."

His words seemed to lift the spell that lay over them and they continued eating, sneaking glances over to the one that beared quite much resemblance to a certain hated person.  
Their center of attention however didn't seemed to comfortable with his situation and was starring onto his plate of food the whole time. At last until Shen bend slightly down and whispered something into his ear, which of course sent him into another blushing fit.

This in turn made the girls giggle stupidly and exchange many words with one another. Noone noticed the strange expression that crossed Snapes face everytime he took a look at the blond one.

The highlight of the next day was of course the Quidditch match! Almost everyone was there, even thought it was only Ravenclaw vs. Huffelpuff.  
The golden trio managed to find Shen and his 'little one' - as many now called him - on coincidence. "We'd like to talk to you about Draconius after the match.", Harry told him. Shen hesitated for a moment then nodded. "An half hour after the match in the room of requirements.", the boy offered before returning his focus on his charge and the match.

Thought the Huffelpuffs were beaten quite obviously (270:30) everyone (except the Huffelpuff team) was in good spirits and ready to celebrate. Harry and his friends almost didn't manage to leave on time because the others wanted them to join their little party, but they declined politely, saying that they really needed to take care of something very important.

Once the three teenager reached the room of requirements there were already two persons awaiting them.

Shen quickly bussied Draconius with a book and gestured them to take a seat while taking a sip of his tea. "You wanted something from me?", he asked politely, but in his eyes they clearly saw a warning that they should think before they speak.

"We would like to know... Who exactly is he?", Harry finally said, signalling to the preoccupied boy. "And afterwards we would also have some questions about you..."  
"... Well, let's see what I can do for you then... What do you want to know about Draconius?", Shen requested, putting his tea down and crossing his arms.

The trio exchange a slightly confused look, before Hermione took the word. "You said that Draco Malfoy and him aren't the same persons, yet the resemblance between the two are quite astonishing and I'm not even talking about their names here... So what is or was the relationship between the two of them? What have they to do with each other?"

"You are really stright-forward, aren't you?", Harrys dark twin smirked, before a sigh escaped his lips. "Alright, since you fought so bravely against Voldemort I'll tell you. But don't you dare telling this to anyone! I'll personally carry out the worst punishment I can think of, if I notice that you couldn't keep you mouths shut!"

After a few moments of silence and a quick glance to the young one he looked at them again. "You just mentioned those words I said when I returned... To be honest they are not completely true... It's a bit hard to explain, but luckily two of you are from the muggle world so this makes things easier... Have you ever heard of cloning?"

Hermione as well as Harry nodded, but Ron didn't had a clue, so he got a quick explanation from his friends. "Well, you see, the thing is, that Draco Malfoy never existed." The trio gasped and looked at each other weirdly. "You probably already guessed it, but he was a clone. A clone from Draconius Black-Malfoy. His papers were fakes, but damn good ones!

The clone was also made four years older then the real Draco was, in order to make him old enough to attend school at the same time as you.", here he looked at Harry. "They altered his personality so it fit Lucius idea of the ideal son and also took measures to make sure that in case something went wrong they wouldn't have to deal with it..."

"What do you mean?", the girl wanted to know.  
"The clones only lived one year each, thought every new clone would get the memories of the one before them. It was some kind of experiment at first, they probably wanted to use it in battle, but they soon saw that it was not a good idea. You might be able to create the same body over and over again, but not the soul, nor the magic.", Shen explained.

"What they didn't know was, that each time a clone died, his knowledge and only his knowledge would also be passed on to Draconius, not only to the new clone. That's also the reason as to why he will be in class with me even thought he is only 12.", he added.

"You mean Dumbledore allowed this?", Ron gapped.  
"Why shouldn't he? After all the knowledge is there, so why not make use of it? Thought I had a harder time explaining things to him, than to you. He just wouldn't believe me!"

"How do you know about all this anyway? I mean, you were in China when all this happened, so how can you know about it? And if a clone was at Hogwarts all the time, what did HE do in the meantime?", Harry now wondered.  
Shen took once again a glance at the blond boy, who was obvious to all the talking and engrossed in his book.

Finally he directed his eyes back to the Gryffindors. "I'm a Seer. I can see the past, the present and sometimes the future. Dray too, that's why they wanted to clone him in the first place... Also the two of us share some kind of connection. We used to see each other in our dreams, where we talked a lot. It was only a month before I graduated in China, that I found out what was really happening over here trough my abilities. I decided, that I couldn't accept a person like him to be used like that, so I came to rescue him..."

He frowned a bit. "That sounded so cheesy somehow...", then he shrugged. "Oh yeah, you wanted to know what he did while Draco was here, didn't you?"  
When the nodded Shen starred into the fire of a candle for a while. "He was locked up in a small cell in the dark dungeon of Malfoy manison where Lucius took out his frustrations everytime something didn't go as he wished it... The only thing keeping them from killing him was the fact that they wanted him to bear Voldemorts children."

I revealed a lot more then I orignially intended first, but I thought I'd clear some confusion right now before I'd forget about it. Don't worry that the story will end soon thought, the plot will thicken, yeah, but there are still many chapters for me to write and you to read before we will reach the end. Until then: Enjoy!


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